How to find the purpose in your teaching

Have a purpose when you teach and help your students find it in their practice

by guest author Elissa Jordan Once upon a time there was a young yoga teacher who spent her days cleaning the windowsill in her acharya’s home, up on a ladder, terrified of heights, scrubbing away. The other students of this one acharya were packed off to teaching assignments, but our young yoga teacher was made to wait. As days became weeks and weeks became months, our young yoga teacher waited patiently, perched upon her ladder, for her big day to come. On the verge of despair … [Read more...]

How to answer: what exactly is the energy body?

Energy work

by guest author Elissa Jordan It started with a story about a mouse in a toaster. Our second weekend in Nelson, as part of the Advanced Yoga Teacher Training with Jenifer Parker of Wellington’s Healium, focused on the energy body. Looking back over my notes from the weekend I see the conversation ebb and flow as only appropriate for a weekend focusing on energy. The movement of stories rode one energetic wave after the next - starting with that mouse in a toaster, and moving to a … [Read more...]

How to take your teaching even further – assist!

Assisting trikonasana

by guest author Elissa Jordan As a yoga teacher, over time, a funny thing starts to happen. Walking down the street you stop seeing people covered in their clothes and shoes and hair. Instead you start seeing collections of muscle and bone, alignment and postures carried around in a thin casing of skin. The knocked knees, the hunched shoulders, the sunken chests taunt us. I’ll sometimes mouth the suggestion of taking your shoulders back and down. Sometimes whispering the instruction … [Read more...]

Who knew? There isn’t just one right way to do things. Even in Yoga.

Assisting trikonasana

by Elissa Jordan One of my Dad’s favourite stories to tell about me as a little girl is the one about my favourite word: why? I carried the word with me everywhere until it was a scraggly, worn-out dirt-encrusted version of itself. There’s some discrepancy as to whether or not this was, in fact, my first word. Dad says yes. Mom thinks it was second, after no. Either way, right from the start I’ve wanted to know the why behind things. Not one to be happy with a ‘because I said … [Read more...]

An interview with Lance Schuler on INSPYA Yoga Teacher Training

INSPYA Yoga Director Lance Schuler

Born and bred Kiwi INSPYA yoga teacher Lance Schuler may make his home in Bryon Bay, but like most Kiwis, he's always looking for an excuse to come back home. Over the last three years, he's been coming to Studio Sangha in Queenstown to hold workshops. Now he's found a way to spend an entire month here - hosting New Zealand's first INSPYA Yoga teacher training this October. And hey, who wouldn't love to spend a month in Queenstown during spring time? The Yoga Lunchbox fired off some … [Read more...]

An interview with Allyson Donnelly, Director of Programming at Abundance Studios, on Power Living Yoga Teacher Training

Duncan Peak

As yoga continues to grow in popularity worldwide, so too do opportunities to study to be a yoga teacher. Even here in New Zealand, there are now a multitude of choices for yoga teacher training. The latest training on offer is Abundance Studio's Power Living Yoga Teacher Training, an intensive two-week programme kicking off this February with Baron Baptiste-trained Duncan Peak of Australia. The Yoga Lunchbox had a chat to Allyson Donnelly, Director of Programming at Abundance Studios in … [Read more...]